A Purge of Banana Republic.

Graphic novelist/editorialist Kirk Anderson's brilliant Banana Republic has been given the pink slip by the Star Tribune. According to David Brauer, who broke the story [and Brian Lambert], everyone's being professional about it:

Kirk said he was told his dismissal was "the 'standard reassessing
our priorities' reason; that they needed money for another part-time
editorial writer to replace the ones that they cut."

Since Generalissimo Avista took over, the Strib's editorial writing
staff has been gutted; people like Jim Boyd, Steve Berg and Kate
Stanley have not been replaced; another vet, Dave Hage, will leave
soon. By my math, Kirk's freelance pay won't even cover half a
full-timer, but interim-and-possibly-longer editorial page editor Scott
Gillespie has to be in triage mode right now, and several editorials a
week no doubt look more alluring than a single quarter-page cartoon.

By my math, the equation is wrong. The loss of that gang of four, plus editorial chief Susan Albright, had to save the Strib a lot more than that, even with a couple buyouts thrown in. If you're replacing all those departures with a part-timer, does that really mean you have to cut loose a freelancer, too?

Four of the names on the page are already gone — presumably still there because some columns remain in the archives. The roster also includes three retirees who manage a column once a moon and three non-staffers. Thomma's column doesn't appear to be archived, and Donlin writes a jobs column so the Marketing Department has content for the Classifieds. Consider that C.J. and Katherine Kersten are included under news, and the depressing picture really emerges.

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A Purge of Banana Republic.

Graphic novelist/editorialist Kirk Anderson's brilliant Banana Republic has been given the pink slip by the Star Tribune. According to David Brauer, who broke the story [and Brian Lambert], everyone's being professional about it:

Kirk said he was told his dismissal was "the 'standard reassessing
our priorities' reason; that they needed money for another part-time
editorial writer to replace the ones that they cut."

Since Generalissimo Avista took over, the Strib's editorial writing
staff has been gutted; people like Jim Boyd, Steve Berg and Kate
Stanley have not been replaced; another vet, Dave Hage, will leave
soon. By my math, Kirk's freelance pay won't even cover half a
full-timer, but interim-and-possibly-longer editorial page editor Scott
Gillespie has to be in triage mode right now, and several editorials a
week no doubt look more alluring than a single quarter-page cartoon.

By my math, the equation is wrong. The loss of that gang of four, plus editorial chief Susan Albright, had to save the Strib a lot more than that, even with a couple buyouts thrown in. If you're replacing all those departures with a part-timer, does that really mean you have to cut loose a freelancer, too?

Four of the names on the page are already gone — presumably still there because some columns remain in the archives. The roster also includes three retirees who manage a column once a moon and three non-staffers. Thomma's column doesn't appear to be archived, and Donlin writes a jobs column so the Marketing Department has content for the Classifieds. Consider that C.J. and Katherine Kersten are included under news, and the depressing picture really emerges.